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Born at the Crest of the Empire

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Picture of the Day
















It really is great that the Harry Potter books make kids want to read and all, but aren't we also teaching a very different lesson to the kids?

The lesson that it's okay to discomfit oneself for a consumer good? The idea that a product will make you happy? A need for product immediacy?

Yes, I am being a grinch, but these "consumer frenzies" are growing more and more frequent, be they for an iPhone, an Xbox, or just a "doorbuster" Christmas deal at Walmart. It's definitely marketing, and deliberate, but it says something about our society.

And now we're teaching that to our kids.

(Fans of the Harry Potter book series gather at an Indigo bookstore before the release of J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" in Toronto July 20, 2007. REUTERS/Mark Blinch)

posted by mikevotes at 7:22 AM

8 Comments:

  • No argument here. If Freud were around today, he'd have to add the drive to BUY to the basic urges of hunger, thirst, and sex.

    I'd comment more, but I have to hurry off to Barnes and Noble. ;-)

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 8:37 AM  

  • It's just so bizarre that as a society we tend nourish the immediate gratification just to see the smile.

    That's what marketing is for, I guess.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 1:55 PM  

  • I think it says more about the herd instinct. OK, buy the book if you like it but why the craving to dress up and identify with a group?

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:58 PM  

  • I wonder if that was why the book was "leaked" on the 'net, to get people out to buy the book before someones spoils the ending for you.

    By Blogger Lew Scannon, at 8:40 PM  

  • Anonymous, The example of that which has always bothered me more is the whole "cowboy" thing. I live in Texas, and there are grown men who travel around in their cowboy getups.

    It's really quite bizarre because in that uniform, they're claiming an identity and allegiance to group.

    But they do it by dressing up as cowboys. Grown men. Very weird.

    ....

    Lew, interesting. A forced buying pressure. Can't wait for the paperback then.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 9:02 PM  

  • As someone who's worked in the book business for a long time, I have mixed feelings about the Potter thing. Obviously, it's good for business, and while I'm not a Potter reader, I think there's genuine enthusiasm here for something that's genuinely good. Marketing only takes you so far--plenty of books/movies/songs or whatever flop miserably despite huge marketing efforts.

    I am puzzled and weirded out by the frenzy though. It seems the book business (like the rest of our culture) is getting blockbusterized, with a few top dogs (Potter, The DaVinci Code, The Nanny Diaries, Lovely Bones) getting all the attention. There is so much else out there that's just as good or better, but I think some of the structural changes in media (i.e. consolidation and interpenetration)over the last decade tend to turn our culture into a giant spotlight that shines a blinding light in one place for a very short time.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 1:53 AM  

  • Tom, Interesting point, but, yeah, I would say books are definitely becoming blockbusterized.

    I think the trend has less to do with the content of the books themselves (or comparitive others) as it has to do with how we relate to them.

    (We're looking for the same experience as everyone else, like a drug?)

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:42 AM  

  • Oh, and I must admit that I am a bit surprised that someone into books case survive my irregular and sometimes torturing grammatical constructions.

    By Blogger mikevotes, at 6:43 AM  

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